Chris Holt

Jessica Ennis-Hill is demanding her silver medal from the 2011 World Championships be upgraded in the wake of Tatyana Chernova’s positive drug test earlier this year.

The Sheffield athlete lost out to the Russian in Daegu but a retesting of a sample taken during the 2009 World Championships revealed Chernova had used a prohibited anabolic steroid.

Chernova’s results between 15 August 2009 and 14 August 2011 have been quashed but the championships in Daegu, during which she won heptathlon gold, beating Ennis-Hill by 129 points, started two weeks later, meaning that there is a chance the Russian could keep hold of her medal.

Ennis-Hill, currently on the comeback trail following the birth of her first child, Reggie, says she is in contact with the International Association of Athletics Federations in an attempt to take the gold medal.

“Obviously I’m not happy about how the ban has been handled. I can’t really understand it, so I’m in communications with the IAAF. But I definitely want that medal,” Ennis-Hill told the Guardian.

“I am hoping they will revisit Daegu because I can’t understand how that is fair. Steroids can have an effect on your body for years.”